Thursday, September 3, 2009

Cabinet should set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the PKFZ scandal

In his article titled " Tee Keat takes the hard- but right-course " which appeared in the Sunday Star dated 30.8.2009, columnist Baradan Kuppusamy said that " as far as whistle blowing goes, there is simply no comparison to what MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat has done with the Port Klang Free Trade Zone (PKFZ) issue".

I am sure no Cabinet minister would feel comfortable when they read what Baradan further said.

Baradan had further written that " For some baffling reason, however,Ong, who is a Cabinet member and president of a party seems to be fighting a lone battle for transparency and accountability. Thus far,he has only got lukewarm support from the Barisan Nasional and the Government both of which are pinning their hopes on reinventing themselves to regain lost support."

In the face of such comments, the Government has no choice but to make a clarification and the clarification came in the form of a statement from the Prime Minister's office. The clarification was published in the Star on 31.8.2009.

The statement denied that the Government is indifferent towards the PKFZ issue. It has stated that the relevant authorities , including the Public Accounts Committee were already conducting their investigations.

Surely Baradan is aware that various authorities were already conducting their investigations. The Government must ask itself the right question -- why Baradan has mentioned the lukewarm support from the Government ?

In fact, I believe that if a survey is carried to find out public opinion on whether they agree that the Government has taken serious and sufficient efforts to investigate the RM 12.5. billion PKFZ scandal , I believe the result will be a big NO.

To date, so many questions about the PKFZ scandal remain unanswered. No one has been prosecuted.

If the Government wants to convince the public of its commitment towards transparency as well as its seriousness in getting to the bottom of the PKFZ scandal, it should set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry ( RCI ) to investigate this " mother of all scandals" and not merely clarify through a press statement from the Prime Minister's office.

The Prime Minister should know that actions speak louder than words. The action that the Malaysians want from his Government on the RM 12.5 billion PKFZ scandal , which is the scandal of scandals in Malaysia, is very obvious.

Until and unless he makes the right decision to set up the RCI, Malaysians will continue to doubt the Government's commitment towards transparency and accountability.